This invention concerns electronic monitoring systems in buildings or groups of buildings such as a school campus. Most large commercial, government, residential and school buildings, particularly high rises, have electronically operated monitoring systems, such as closed circuit television systems (CCTV), burglar or intrusion alarm systems (BAS), access control systems (ACS), fire detection and notification systems, air handling systems, elevator control systems (ECS), and parking management systems (PMS). If an emergency occurs in the building, first responders must quickly gather accurate information about the building and the emergency situation.
It would also be desirable if the first responders could quickly gain access and perhaps control over at least some of the monitoring systems to the extent possible. While typically this would be possible from locations within the building by persons familiar with the location and the nature of the systems, the first responders typically would not have that familiarity and, more seriously, access to the building may be blocked or it may be too hazardous to enter.
Many emergencies have occurred in which an ineffective response has proved tragic. It has been proposed to interface with such building systems via the internet, but these have generally been incomplete and not easily accessible by first responders.
With respect to building security, the current state of the art in a security alarm annunciator is a simple panel, typically installed inside a building lobby, which displays a lit, blinking LED next to a floor or zone number when an alarm or sprinkler is activated. Faced with an array of floors or zones, emergency first responders, if they can even approach the building, are provided with only a blinking light to indicate that there may be a hostage situation, a medical emergency, a bomb or a fire.
A system has been offered commercially which is a touch screen LCD monitor installed inside the building, and offering information on the location of a fire, activated fire sensors and a rudimentary floorplan that is converted from CAD drawings that the building owner must supply. It is functionally no different than the blinking LED next to a floor or zone number on a typical panel.
In an overwhelming number of cases, emergency first responders have no idea what they are walking into, especially in a large public or office building. At the site of the Columbine High School tragedy, policy, firefighters and medical teams waited outside for hours, not knowing where the killers were located, how many were dead or injured, or the identity of the killers, even though the school had a camera and sensor system that was active and functional. Nor did they have floor plans for the school for at least 40 minutes after they first arrived.
If a fire alarm is tripped inside a large public or office building, fire crews will break down doors trying to find and encircle the affected area based on which smoke detectors were activated and displayed on a typical annunciator panel. Insurers estimate that firefighters destroy 3 doors for every door necessary to be destroyed for fire control.
In some medical emergencies in high-rise buildings, first responders often arrive without the proper equipment and lose precious time backtracking, simply because they didn't know the extent or nature of injuries or because certain critical dimensions for elevators, stairwells or doorways prevent them from moving in the appropriate equipment.
It is the object of the present invention to provide an emergency interface with building monitoring and security systems which is easily accessed by first responders and provides a highly effective interaction with these systems.